Prosecutors to charge St. Michael's student with LSD sale

Feb. 27, 2013

Colin Basler / Colchester police

Written by

Free Press Staff Writer

A judge has found probable cause to charge a former St. Michael’s College student suspected of selling acid to a fellow student who later leaped off a bridge.

The defendant, Colin Basler, 19, of Old Lyme, Conn., was at a drug treatment facility in Brattleboro Tuesday and did not attend his scheduled arraignment in Vermont Superior Court in Burlington. The court postponed the arraignment for three weeks.

Prosecutors intend to charge Basler at his arraignment with felony LSD sale of less than 100 mgs, felony LSD possession of at least 100 mgs and a misdemeanor count of lying to a police officer.

Colchester police arrested Basler Feb. 20, saying he sold LSD through a middleman to Ethan Levine, 19, of Marblehead, Mass. on Feb. 15.

Levine, having taken two hits of blotter acid, trashed a Simon’s convenience store in Colchester near St. Michael’s College at about 11 p.m. that night, ran through campus and led campus security to the Lime Kiln Road bridge, according to Colchester Police Detective Tyler Kinney’s affidavit.

Levine then jumped off the bridge and fell about 40 feet onto the railroad tracks below, according to the detective. Rescue workers responded to the scene and transported the student to Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington.

Levine shattered his spine, fractured nearly all of his ribs and damaged several organs when he hit the tracks, according to the affidavit. His condition had improved to good by Wednesday morning, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

Basler, who played soccer for St. Michael’s, has since withdrawn from the school.

According to the affidavit, investigators talked to Levine in the hospital and learned from him that he and three friends had used acid in a dorm room on campus. In talking to Levine’s friends, police traced the LSD back to another student, John Owens, 22, who told investigators he took $60 from Levine and his friends and used it to buy 15 hits of acid from Basler, according to the affidavit. The affidavit states Owens then gave the drugs to Levine and his friends.

Basler initially denied selling anyone LSD, but later, after a search of his room turned up LSD and drug paraphernalia, admitted to selling Owens 15 hits of acid for $60, according to the affidavit. Asked where he got the LSD, Basler at first implicated another St. Michael’s student, but then said he had gotten the drugs from a friend who had visited from Connecticut, the affidavit states. The affidavit does not name the friend.

In announcing Basler’s arrest Feb. 21, Colchester police stated that detectives are “continuing their investigation into an off campus source of supply and additional arrests are expected.”